Friday, January 25, 2013

A charge that James Thorpe, the world’s greatest athlete, was a professional baseball player two years before he entered the Carlisle Indian school was laid before James E. Sullivan, secretary of the Amateur Athletic Union [yesterday].

The charge originated with Charles Clancy, manager of the Winston Salem club, Carolina Association, who told the sporting editor of the Worcester Daily Telegram that the Indian played for his team as a pitcher and first baseman in 1910.

Glenn Warner, coach of the Carlisle Indian school athletes, [yesterday] received a letter from Charles C.A. Clancy…in which Mr. Clancy denies making the statements attributed to him in a Worcester, Mass., newspaper and encloses a clipping from a Boston paper in which he makes a complete denial of the alleged interview. Mr. Clancy further states that Thorpe never played on his team in the Carolina association or on any other team in that league.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Clancy should have been a politician. Of course Thorpe never played on his team in the Carolina Association; Clancy was managing in the Eastern Carolina League when Thorpe played for him.

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Two stories in yesterday's Startlegram sports section: the Rangers have no idea who's going to play center field, all the options are weak; and Jurickson Profar will have to start the season in AAA because there's nowhere for him to play in the lineup. Sooner or later somebody's going to put the peanut butter and the chocolate together and make a wonderful confection out of those problems :)

Meanwhile, in the local news section, a former Rangers farmhand was arrested for indecency with a minor: he "told the officer that he didn't realize that she was only 16," despite the fact that he was her high school teacher.

I'm putting this up here because I have no idea how to post a new thread on Newsstand, and don't even know if I have the privileges to do that. Maybe someone here can help with that. The STL newspaper, The Post-Dispatch, put up a picture of Stan Musial's high school team in 1939. Every player on the team is white except one. It turns out to be Joseph "Buddy" Griffey, the father and grandfather of a couple of MLB players you might recognize. As most of you now know from the eulogies if not from earlier, Musial was one of the MLB players who most supported integration. Apparently, he was used to it from his high school days - and it was the grandfather Griffey. Just a cool note I thought I should share here. - Brock Hanke

The STL newspaper, The Post-Dispatch, put up a picture of Stan Musial's high school team in 1939. Every player on the team is white except one. It turns out to be Joseph "Buddy" Griffey, the father and grandfather of a couple of MLB players you might recognize.

I've been studying that photo and the various conflicting stories of people involved for years. I'm about 95 percent convinced now that the African American in the photo is Buddy Griffey, though it's 100 percent certain that Musial and Griffey were athletic acquaintances. I hesitate only because Musial, in the autobiography that Bob Broeg wrote for him in 1964, noted that he had a "Negro" teammate in high school who was then (that is, in 1964) a college professor. By accounts, that doesn't describe Griffey, who is said to have gone to work in the Donora zinc mills. Also, Musial is known to have had an African American teammate named Grant Gray in Donora. So two black athletes, but only one is pictured.

The photo has been dated 1939, but it would be more convenient to the stories of both Musial and Griffey if it was 1938. Musial signed a pro contract at 16 in the summer of 1937, but was allowed to play high school ball in 1938, because he hadn't played yet in the pros or even received any money. But he played Class D ball in the summer of 1938 and would have been ineligible to return to high school ball in 1939. In fact, Musial says in his book that he could only help coach the team. I suppose it's possible that he either wore a team uniform as a coach -- although it certainly seems that the photo presents him as one of the players -- or even possible that he played illegally on the sly, which seems less likely since opposing schools were bound to know him and know that he had turned pro. The photo caption in Musial's book deftly skirts the date question by saying, "In 1937, a Donora teacher, Michael "Ki" Duda . . . brought back high school baseball ... "

As for Griffey, a 1990 story from the Seattle Times about the estrangement of Buddy and Ken Sr. gives Buddy's age as 71, meaning he would have been 19 or 20 in the spring of 1939. Not impossible that, at that time, a 20-year-old would still be in high school or that participation rules would have been less rigid than they are today and would have allowed that student to play sports.

The most interesting thing about the photo, as it appears both in the Post-Dispatch and in George Vecsey's book on Musial, is that a third row of students in the back, wearing sweats or windbreakers but not uniforms, has been airbrushed out. The same photo appears, with all three rows, in Musial's book.

News and notes:
* Hank Greenberg (January 1) leads the league in SLG (.610), OBP (.436), and RC/27 (10.5). He's fourth in AVG (.342), fourth in HR (27), and third in BB (82).
* Chili Davis (January 17) leads the league in AVG (.342), hits (191), RBI (117), and TB (306).
* Otis Nixon (January 9) has all but locked up the stolen base crown with 130. Max Carey (January 11) is second with 122 steals. Nixon is second in the league with 181 hits and tied for third with 97 runs scored.
* Paul Ratliff (January 23) is in line for 200+ strikeouts. He's at 193 with seven games left to play.
* Most home runs vs. LHP: Ron Kittle (January 5) 12, Walker Cooper (January 8) 10, Sherman Obando (January 23) 10. Because of course.
* Mike Konnick (January 13) leads the league with 164 stolen bases allowed as a catcher. The good news is that he leads the league with 53 doubles.
* The axiom that you have to be a pretty good pitcher to be given an opportunity to lose 20 games doesn't apply in the Birthday League. Ken Cloude (January 9) is an awful pitcher and has 21 losses. Don Nottebart (January 23) is a pretty solid pitcher and has 18 losses.
* Jeff Suppan (January 2) and Silver King (January 11) are tied atop the leaderboard with 17 wins.
* Bill Doak (January 28) is within spittin' distance of an ERA title. Doak sits at 2.13, while Jack Kramer (January 5) is second at 2.28.
* Games pitched leaderboard: Odell Jones and Andrew Sisco (Both January 13) 84 each, Bill Sampen, Brian Falkenborg, and Dick Estelle (all January 18) 84, 82, and 79 respectively.
* Mark Littell (January 17) is first in walks and second in strikeouts. David Cone (January 2) is first in strikeouts and second in walks.
* Atlee Hammaker (January 24) leads the league with 11 balks. Nobody else has more than 7.
* Hot over the last ten days: Jack Cust (January 16) .565-3-11. Bobby Grich (January 15) .281-4-11. Ramon Monzant (January 4) 2 GS, 16 IP, 8 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 1 Win.
* Cold over the last ten days: Skipper Roberts (January 11) .042-0-1. Ken Cloude (January 9) 3 GS, 10 IP, 6 ER 7 H, 9 BB, 3 HR, 3 Losses.

Former Astros slugger Jeff Bagwell was passed over for the Hall of Fame along with Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire this month, but he’s emerging as a player in a sleazy and bruising divorce battle between his reported girlfriend Rachel Brown and her estranged hubby, hand surgeon Michael Brown.The Browns’ strange and scandalous breakup has shocked Houston, where Bagwell played during his entire 15-year career, and brought to light Bagwell’s relationship with Rachel. [...]

She also told the court that Bagwell had recently gone to rehab to be treated for alcohol abuse, but he left before he completed the program. Bagwell has always denied using steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.

She also told the court that Bagwell had recently gone to rehab to be treated for alcohol abuse, but he left before he completed the program. Bagwell has always denied using steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs.